Metta World Peace has been a vocal supporter of Dwight Howard all season. / Richard Mackson, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - There was plenty to digest at Los Angeles Lakers practice Saturday, not the least of which was the status of Kenneth Faried's mouth after the Denver Nuggets forward ate the elbow of the Lakers' Metta World Peace on Monday.

That one play, in which the player formerly known as Ron Artest flailed his left arm up while boxing out and left a cut on the inside of Faried's mouth that pains him still, did more than add yet another flagrant foul to the infamous résumé of one of the game's most physical players. It inspired a long and fascinating diatribe from a player who, like him or not, remains one of the most colorful and candid in the game.

"It's not like I (brought) this aggression to the league," World Peace said. "I didn't invent this. This is what we watched. This is what we saw. The Bill Laimbeers and the (Dennis) Rodmans. They played hard. And they wasn't trying to hurt nobody. They just played hard. They played with passion. And we grew up wanting to play with passion. So when guys say we're dirty, we're just playing hard, man. We're not playing dirty. We're just playing, we're reacting, we're going hard. We want to win."

World Peace wasn't hit with the Flagrant 2 penalty until three days after the game, as the Nuggets alerted the league to the play and the decision was then made. And when Nuggets coach George Karl kept the topic alive by calling World Peace's elbow "premeditated," World Peace spent nearly 20 minutes discussing the wussification of the NBA and how Karl should know better than to contribute to that unfortunate cause.

"You could complain every single time," World Peace continued. "You guys could take footage of every single NBA game, take every little action out there and complain about it if you want. ... But the game is aggressive. It's a fast-paced game.

"The same game where I boxed out (Faried) and got upgraded to a Flagrant Two, I got flared (with an arm) by (Denver's JaVale) McGee in the face. Same game. Box out, flare arms, but I'm not going to say, 'Call it in.' "

By the time World Peace's interview session was over, one conclusion became crystal clear in the greater context of this Lakers season: He's the right man for this job.

Since they finally decided to fight for their season, winning 12 of the past 17 games while avoiding any more telenovela twists since the All-Star break, there's no better poster boy for this playoff push than the player who was known as a fighter long before that ill-fated night in Auburn Hills, Mich. This is the sort of spirit this team could use now, with their first half fallout leading to their playoff lives being so precariously on the line (2½ out of the eighth spot entering Sunday's game against the Atlanta Hawks).

First things first, this habit of his wayward elbow going rogue needs to stop. World Peace's explanation about how the Nuggets complaining was an indictment of the softness of today's NBA as opposed to the rugged NBA of yesteryear - entertaining though it may have been - was a simplistic and insufficient defense.

But for all the attention paid to his comments about the Faried situation, from the stories told about his brutal Queensbridge Housing Projects upbringing and the way he learned to play in the "one way in, one way out" ghettos of his youth to the proclamation that former tough guys such as Charles Oakley and Laimbeer would laugh at some players of today, his open-mike session with the news media offered reminders of his redeeming qualities that are so sorely lacking from this unit.

Specifically, his vocal defense of big man Dwight Howard was one Lakers teammate fighting for another - a rare occurrence among what has been a mostly dysfunctional group. He asked the news media to start paying more attention to the way Howard is defended, to take notice of all those shoves in the back that go uncalled and the one-armed tomahawks he takes to the shoulders every time he goes up for a dunk or layup.

He reminded the masses how Howard would never have needed back surgery in April to begin with if he didn't take so many hits. In a season full of in-fighting and chemistry issues rooted largely in selfishness, World Peace - as has been the case since he came to town four years ago - hasn't deserved enough credit for the selfless way that he plays his part.

He defends. He scores when asked - at a clip of 12.6 points per game this season compared to 7.7 last season, with coach Mike D'Antoni's emphasis on the long-range game making World Peace more relevant on that end again. He praises teammates, defends teammates and almost always plays the part of Switzerland when the latest controversy is brewing in Laker Land. World Peace, strange though it may seem, is the most no-nonsense one in this complicated bunch.

All of which will come in handy if the Lakers pull off this playoff push.

"We could potentially be playing Denver in the playoffs, right?" he said in a not-so-subtle hint that this story may not be over. "We could potentially play them. Who knows? We're just going to play hard."

That much he made clear. They will play hard. And if the stars align more than they did in these last few months, they will play hard together.